Greater social mobility will help narrow gap between rich and poor, says WEF

Only US and Italy have weaker performance than UK among G7 industrialised nations

The organisation that runs the annual Davos event attended by some of the world's richest people has said greater social mobility would help narrow the gap between rich and poor and boost global growth by almost 5% in the next decade.

A report from the World Economic Forum found that only a handful of 82 countries surveyed had put in place policies that would foster social mobility but that a concerted effort to increase opportunities for people to achieve their full potential would have a marked impact on economic performance.

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